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| Boundary Way, West Belfast, Northern Ireland ©Kate Trenerry |
Walls
are built as an instrument of political partition to bring clarity and
focus to sectarian conflicts within neighborhoods, terrorist attacks
throughout cities, even all-out war across a country. I brought my
camera to Israel/Palestine, Cyprus, and Northern Ireland to complicate
and blur my understanding of these divided societies and the people who
live in them.
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| Cupar Way, West Belfast, Northern Ireland ©Kate Trenerry |
In
early 2012, I set out to understand and document the effects of the
Israeli Separation Barrier, the United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus,
and the Peace Lines of Northern Ireland on the places and people they
divide. I spent a total of three months on the road, during which time I
attempted to walk along as much of the barriers as possible.
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| Rural Checkpoint near Qalqilya, Palestine ©Kate Trenerry |
Walls
and borders imply a dualistic view of space, yet all of their power
depends on how people interpret and interact with these spaces. Borders
are where the rules change, if someone enforces them.
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| The Edge of the Buffer Zone, Nicosia, Cyprus ©Kate Trenerry |
During
my journey, I met people who were walls and people who were bulldozers.
I encountered city blocks that were inviolable boundaries. I was
entranced by parallel of lights in hazy distance that represented deadly
borders. Walls are dramatic and easy to photograph, but the way they
seep into the landscape and people around them are difficult for
outsiders to detect, much less understand or document. My work serves as
a record of my own travels in these borderlands as an attempt to
document the everyday reality of these brutal barriers, but to also
investigate questions and inconsistencies that arise from their attempt
to create duality in modern political cases that are too complex to be
cast in black and white.
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| Walajeh, Palestine ©Kate Trenerry |
For more of Kate's work go to www.kateincolor.com
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